Two Cancer Specialists on White House Commission on CAM

WASHINGTON—President Clinton included two cancer specialists on the newly created, 11-member White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine: George M. Bernier, Jr., MD, hematologist/oncologist, University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and William R. Fair, MD, of Long Boat Key, Fla, former chief of the urology service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and emeritus professor of urology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

The commission is charged with developing legislative and administrative recommendations aimed at maximizing the benefits of contemporary and alternative medicine (CAM). Psychiatrist James S. Gordon, MD, director, Center for Mind-Body Medicine, Washington, will chair the commission.

Other members include Sister Charlotte Rose Kerr, RN, of Baltimore, a traditional acupuncture practitioner; Wayne B. Jonas, MD, of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and former director of the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine; Dean Ornish, MD, of Sausalito, California, founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute; and George Thomas DeVries III, of Rancho Santa Fe, California, president and CEO of American Specialty Health.

Also, Joseph J. Fins, MD, director of medical ethics, New York Weill Cornell Medical Center; Conchita M. Paz, MD, of Las Cruces, NM, a family medicine specialist; Buford L. Rolin, of Atmore, Alabama, health administrator for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians; Julia Scott, of Washington, DC, president of the National Women’s Health Project; and Thomas Chappell, of Kennebunk, Maine, co-founder of Tom’s of Maine.